Tag Archives: stay at home

Recipe: Buttermilk Pie UPDATED

1 Reply

Ages ago, I held a giveaway for these great pie crusts for Wewalka.  I still prefer their crusts to frozen or any other pre-made, ready-to-roll crusts. And no, I haven’t made my own and I have no plans, really. I was looking back on that recipe and good gravy it’s missing some detail. Really, y’all couldn’t point it out?

It’s fine.

I made this pie again today and man oh man, I wanna stick my face in it. This buttermilk pie is the perfect way to use up extra buttermilk (I used local milk from Cheek Farmstead Creamery viaHigh Country Food Hub and it’s such a great little dessert. Kind of like a vanilla chess pie, but with some extra tanginess. Enjoy!

Buttermilk Pie

Ingredients:

  • 3 large eggs at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1 – 1 1/4 cups white sugar
  • 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup buttermilk ( I whole or fat-free is fine)
  • 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or just another teaspoon of extract)
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (optional but yummy)
  • 1 prepared pie crust

Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Place your pie crust in a 9 inch pie dish, fluting the crust as you see fit if you’ve rolled one out. As you can see above, I’m terrible at it.  For easier transport,  place prepared pie dish on a cookie sheet BEFORE you pour your mixture in.

Directions:

  1. Beat eggs until foamy. Add butter, flour, 1 cup of the sugar and beat until fluffy.
  2. Add buttermilk, vanilla, lemon juice and nutmeg.
  3. Beat until smooth. Taste for sweetness, if you like it a bit sweeter, add the remaining 1/4 of flour.
  4. Pour into prepared crust.
  5. Bake for 45-55 minutes until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
  6. Cool completely.

Enjoy with whipped cream (or not) and/or berries (or not). I like mine plain. But I’m a simple girl.

IMG_1705 2

Advertisement

Recipe: Asparagus & Sundried Tomato Pasta w/ Feta

Leave a reply

Day 137, 157 of staying in. I hope you haven’t found yourself in a rut. I can tell you, I cannot type as I have mistyped every. single. word. up to this point.

The recipe I’m bringing today goes waaaaaaay waaaaaaaay back. Way back to the mid-90’s (ish) in Winston-Salem, NC, well before the city was known for its food scene but still had a few commendable restaurants and a couple of ever so new and trendy coffee shops.

My favorite restaurant at the time was a place called The Maze. It was in Reynolda Village and I loved eating there on my evening break when I worked at WXII. If I remember correctly, it was very vegetarian heavy (not that I am one) and I just loved this creamy penne pasta dish with asparagus, sun-dried tomatoes that was topped with crumbled feta. It was creamy, tangy, and savory and the shining star was the sun-dried tomatoes, which I’d never even heard of at the time. We’ve come a long way baby.

Well, The Maze has long since closed but I think I’ve copied it well enough.  Up until this week, I hadn’t made it in forever and thought I’d share it with you. This dish makes an excellent main meatless course, but I also like it as a side. And if you want to add shrimp or chicken for protein, it will not disappoint. Any pasta would do but the original was presented with penne and it’s pretty perfect for it. (If you look closely, you’ll say I don’t have penne here, rather a similar pasta plus another pasta with no ridges because I was using what I had and I refused to go back out just for one thing).

IMG_1944

Asparagus & Sun-dried Tomato Pasta w/ Feta

Ingredients:
1 lb penne pasta or similar, cooked according to package directions
1/4 cup onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, grated or finely minced
1 bunch asparagus, roughly chopped
1/2 cup sundried tomatoes (either in oil or dried but reconstituted)
1/2 cup fresh feta, crumbled
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tbs. oil of choice
salt/pepper to taste

Directions:
As the water boils and pasta cooks, heat oil in a large skillet. Add onions and saute for 5 minutes until soft and beginning to caramelize. Add asparagus and cook 5-8 minutes over medium heat until the asparagus is beginning to get tender, but do not let it get mushy. Toss in the tomatoes and stir. Once the pasta is completed, add 1 cup of the pasta water to the mixture. Add the cream and stir until thickened and just slightly creamy but not swimming in it.  Add the pasta and mix well, adding a splash of cream if you think it needs it. Season with salt and pepper.  Stir in the feta, then top with a bit more before serving.

IMG_1945

 

 

Recipe: Salmon & “Black Caviar” Lentils w/ Creamy Dill Sauce

Leave a reply

As we head into day 137,137 of our stay at home/quarantine, I decided to do a little something outside of our comfort zone and make salmon…at home. Now, I rarely order salmon out unless its sushi, but I’ve had just a few successes at home with salmon and this dish was no different….plus it’s so pretty.

And don’t let the fancy name scare you off. This was super easy. I ordered my Black Caviar Lentils, aka “Beluga” lentils from Rancho Gordo well before the pandemic so I’m not sure how readily available they are in stores, but they are still available here with some possible shipping delays of course. They get their name because they look so much like Beluga Caviar.  I’m actually looking forward to cooking with these type of lentils again. They have so much flavor and add drama to any dish. When they arrived I wondered,  “what in the world what have I done?” What would I make with them? But a local chef  years ago had made them as a bed under some prawns and I saw another dish somewhere on the interwebs with scallops. Well, I’m fresh out of scallops here, but I did have 2 pieces of salmon in the freezer, so that’s how we got here.  Serve this salmon and lentils with asparagus or spinach and you have a complete, colorful meal.

About the sauce in this recipe, you can make just about any sauce you want, but dill loves and seafood and cream. I’ve seen similar recipes of dill sauce calling for creme fraiche but I wasn’t about to make a special trip for that so I used cream cheese instead and have noted that in the ingredients. There’s also a tip below for a totally alternate method that I’ve made before (with some modifications) and it’s almost as good just not warm.  Both sauces are keto-friendly (but the lentils are not).

IMG_1912

Salmon w/Creamy Dill Sauce & Black Caviar Lentils

Ingredients

Wild Caught Salmon filet (try to find one that’s beautifully pink and about 3/4-1 inch thick, about 6-8 oz)
1-2 TBS capers (reserve some juice for later)
Olive oil

Creamy Dill Sauce 
1 TBS minced garlic
1 TBS butter
3 tsp. dijon mustard
4 TBS cream cheese (or creme fraiche if you can find it)
heavy cream (if using cream cheese to loosen to desired consistency)
3 tsp. lemon juice or the reserved caper juice
3 tsp. fresh dill, coarsely minced, plus a few sprigs for garnish
salt/pepper to taste
**see note

Lentils
1 cup black caviar/beluga lentils
oil or butter
Chicken stock or water
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp. salt
dry aromatics like bay leaf or oregano (or you can omit)

First you’ll want to prepare your lentils. Heat oil or fat in a sauce pan. Add lentils and stir to coat. Add the garlic then enough water or chicken stock to cover by about an inch. Bring to a boil then lower the heat and simmer for about 40 minutes until just tender.
Note: I strongly suggest you take a look at the recommendation on the lentil package as some may require a bit of a different length of cooking time, but this is what I followed per Rancho Gordo. 

While the lentils are cooking…
If using a thicker piece of salmon, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Season the salmon with salt and pepper. Add a oil to a hot pan and sear salmon, skin side up, until golden then flip and sear for a couple minutes more. Scatter in the capers (without the juice). You should hear them sizzle and start to crisp. Place pan in the oven and cook for 5 minutes until medium doneness. You can cook a few minutes more if you like it more done.  Note: my salmon was pretty thin and did not need the additional cooking time beyond the sear, but you may need to do bake it here.

For the sauce:
While the salmon finishes, heat the butter in a sauce pan. After it melts, add dijon and stir well, then add cream cheese or creme fraiche and whisk until smooth and creamy.  If it’s a little too thick, add a bit of heavy cream to loosen. I needed about a 4 tablespoons.  Add the lemon juice or caper juice, then the dill and stir.

Plate the salmon and capers, drizzle the sauce liberally over (as little or as much as you want) and finish with a sprig or two of fresh dill. Serve along side or atop the beluga lentils. I topped with some local microgreens.

Enjoy!

**Let’s just say you haven’t been to the store in 37 days and you’re fresh out of cream cheese. Well you can still make the dill sauce with 1/4 cup mayonnaise, 3/4 cup sour cream, 1 TBS lemon juice, 3-4 TBS. fresh dill, pinch of salt. You will not heat this. Just mix and serve. Easy peasy. And save it because if you decide to add capers or relish later, it’s totally a tartar sauce and so is the one above that’s heated first, come to think of it.

 

Enjoy!